Portland Biblical Community

Verse 1:
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander…

Five things that destroy the church:

1. Malice – Evil, depravity, wickedness, ill will…
2. Deceit – Treachery, cunning…
3. Hypocrisy – Outward show of righteousness, inward attitude of unrighteousness…
4. Envy – Jealousy, shown through action…
5. Slander – Evil speech, defamation…

Peter urged his readers to take off all kinds of evil conduct like so many soiled garments. The sins mentioned are all incompatible with brotherly love (cf. 1:22 “You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.�).

“The early Christian practice of baptism by immersion entailed undressing completely; and we know that in the later liturgies the candidate’s removal of his clothes before descending naked to the pool and his putting on a new set on coming up formed an impressive ceremony and were interpreted as symbols of his abandonment of his past unworthy life and his adoption of a new life of innocenceâ€?

Peter here called his readers to put into practice what they had professed in their baptism.

Verse 2-3:
2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

Next he urged them to do something positive. Since they had experienced the new birth (1:3, 23), they should now do what babies do. The word for spiritual in Greek is “logikosâ€?, which is a play on words with the reference in 1:23-25 to the “living and enduring wordâ€? (logos) of God, through which they were born anew. This is a subtle indication that the nourishment for our growth must be the word of God in Christ. “Long for” is a strong expression that we could paraphrase “develop an appetite for.” This is the only command (imperative) in the passage. God’s Word is spiritual food that all believers instinctively desire, but we must also cultivate a taste for it.

The point of the figurative language is this: as a babe longs for nothing but its mother’s milk and will take nothing else, so every Christian should take no spiritual nourishment except the Word. Individual responsibility.

What many have settled for in America is “being fedâ€? through a form of American consumerism, arrive, settle in, sing songs, listen to a powerful speaker, go home. This Scripture clearly teaches that spiritual growth comes from believers who latch onto the Word of God in Christ like a baby latches onto his mother’s breast and drinks down life giving nourishment.

Verse 4-8
4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The apostle Peter referred to Psalm 118:22 that both Jesus and he had previously quoted to the Sanhedrin (Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11).

Peter saw the church as a living temple to which God was adding with the conversion of each new believer. Each Christian is one of the essential stones that enables the whole structure to fulfill its purpose. Communal responsibility.

God has a purpose for all of us to fulfill that we cannot fulfill individually. The Christian who is not working in relationship with other Christians as fellow stones, as well as with Jesus Christ as his foundation, cannot fulfill God’s complete purpose for him. While every Christian has an individual purpose, we also have a corporate, communal purpose that we cannot fulfill unless we take our place in the community of Christians that is the church.

6 For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.” 7 So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, 8 and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

The “corner stone” refers to the main stone on which the building rests.

Isaiah 28:16 Whoever believes in this stone will not be disappointed.
Isaiah 8:14 Stone to trip over, a snare and a trap

This stone is Christ, a stumbling stone to trip over for the disobedient, but priceless in value to those who believe.

Peter clarified two relationships of the believer in these verses (4-6). He rests on Christ as a building rests on its foundation. And he relates to every other believer as the stones of a building under construction relate to one another. We need each other, should support each other, and work together in love.

NET …They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. (stumble)

Those who stumble refer to those who do not believe (v.7). God appointed those who would stumble over Christ to stumble because they do not believe and were therefore disobedient. To clarify, those who disbelieve are destined to stumble, rather than destined to disobey (Greek grammar shows this relationship).

Verse 9-10:
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

All the figures of the church that Peter chose here originally referred to Israel with two distinct differences. However with Israel’s rejection of Jesus Christ (v. 7) God created a new body of people through whom He now seeks to accomplish the same purposes He sought to achieve through Israel but by different means.

Physical race vs. Chosen race
Israel was a physical race of people, the literal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The church is a spiritual race, the members of which share the common characteristic of faith in Christ and are both Jews and Gentiles racially. Christians are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. We are not Abraham’s literal descendants, unless we are Jews, but are his children in the sense that we believe God’s promises in the same manner Abraham believed God’s promise to bless the world through him.

Priesthood vs. Royal priesthood
“In the ancient world it was not unusual for the king to have his own group of priestsâ€?

God’s purpose for Israel was that she be a nation of royal priests who would stand between God and the rest of humanity representing people before God. (Exodus 19:6) “You will be to me a kingdom (royalty) of priests and a holy nation.â€? However, God withdrew this blessing from the whole nation because of the Israelites’ apostasy with the golden calf and gave it to the faithful tribe of Levi instead (Numbers 3:12-13, 45, 8:14; cf. Exodus 13:2, 32:25-29).

God has restored this royal priesthood to all believers. We worship, we intercede, we minister, and we’re to be holy.

God wanted to dwell among the Israelites and to make them His own unique possession by residing among them (Exodus 19:5) “And now, if you will diligently listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine�

He did this in the tabernacle and the temple until the apostasy of the Israelites made continuation of this intimacy impossible. Then the presence of God departed from His people. This intimacy has been restored to us in Christ both communally as “living stones� and individually through the Holy Spirit that lives in our hearts.

We are:

1. A chosen race
2. A royal priesthood
3. A holy nation
4. A people of God’s own possession

For this purpose: so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We are a chosen race for a purpose…
We are royal priests for a purpose…
We are a holy nation for a purpose…
We are God’s own possession for a purpose…

….to proclaim.

10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We must understand God’s purpose for the church as presented here by Peter. We must renounce self-centered living, unwillingness to sacrifice, worldly goals, and preoccupation with material things and embrace God’s purpose to proclaim.

Verse 11-12
11 Dear friends, I urge you as [God's chosen people] foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul…

verse 1… put off.

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

12 and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears.

Good conduct among non-Christians
Maligned in the present for your deeds
When God appears they will glorify God for your deeds

Galatians 5:22 - 6:1 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.

Summary

1. We must put off fleshly desires that wage war against our souls like filthy clothes and put on the newness of Christ.
2. We bear an individual responsibility to cultivate a taste for the Word, to have Word saturated lives so that we may grow spiritually.
3. We bear a communal responsibility to interdependence in fulfilling God’s purposes.
4. We have been given an extraordinary communal identity (purpose) so that we would proclaim God’s virtues.
5. We are to be known for good works as we live among unbelievers.

in Christ,
Scott